Chapter 160 160. Leave

Chapter 160 160. Leave
Tabitha’s POV

The guard’s finger tightens on the trigger, but Jace drags himself across the floor and slams into his legs before he can fire. The impact knocks the guard off balance. The gun flies from his hand and skids across the floor.

I lunge for it and wrap my fingers around the grip. I lift it with both hands and pull the trigger. The first shot slams into the wall. The second grazes a shoulder. I force my breathing to steady and fire again.

A howl rips through the room as a bullet tears into a guard’s leg. I adjust my aim and shoot again. Another drops, clutching his thigh. I keep pulling the trigger until three of them are writhing on the ground with blood soaking through their pants, and the other two stagger back with shots lodged in their arms.

None of them get up.

The effect is too fast to be normal. The wounds smoke at the edges. Realization dawns on me as I stare at the gun I’m holding. This isn’t meant for humans. It’s meant for wolves.

A low whistle drifts from behind me.

“Guess all that practice paid off, huh?” Reed says, even with blood running down his temple.

I shake my head and crawl to one of the fallen guards. My fingers dig into his pocket until I find a key. I scramble back and unlock each chain that binds all four of them. The metal falls away from their wrists and ankles.

The second they’re free, my body gives in to the shaking I’ve been holding back. I throw my arms around them. I don’t care about the blood or the bruises. I just need to feel them solid and alive.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Luca says with a faint smile. “This puts you in danger.”

“My life’s already in danger,” I say in a trembling voice. “No matter how much distance I try to put between us, I can’t run from the truth. I can’t stand the thought of you dying.”

Reed swears under his breath and cups my face.

“Fuck, princess. All I want is to kiss you right now. But we need to get out of here first.”

Across the room, fur flashes gray and copper as Mom and Mario tear into each other. For a split second, Mom’s eyes find mine.

She dips her head once before lunging back at him.

I don’t have to hear her voice to understand what she meant—she’s buying me enough time to escape.

But that would mean I have to leave her here! I clench my jaw at the thought. How can I do that? I can’t just ditch her while she’s surrounded by the rogues who would probably regard her as a traitor now. My feet refuse to move.

“We should leave now,” Evren says as he pushes himself upright.

“B-But my mom…”

“We’ll get reinforcements as soon as we get out of here, and we come back for her immediately.”

My throat tightens, but I nod. We don’t stand a chance with just six of us here. We have better chance with help. So I reluctantly agree.

The five of us exit the room and outside, we encounter a hallway packed with over a dozen rogues already shifted. They look at us as if we are their next meal.

Shit.

“Fucking bring it on,” Reed mutters beside me.”

Bones crack and reshape beside me as the brothers shift despite their injuries. Their wolf forms tower over the rogues. They look bigger—not sure if it’s the Alpha genes in them, but they certainly look more menacing than any other werewolves I’ve seen before. But they’re outnumbered and wounded, so the odds aren’t exactly in our favor.

But that doesn’t stop the brothers from clashing with the rogues. Evren lunges at the wolves who try to reach for me. Despite their injured state, it’s still a wonder how they manage to even the battlefield even with a great number disadvantage.

I can’t just stand here and let them protect me!

I lift the gun and shoot whenever I see an opening. One rogue collapses. Then another. The hallway turns into a battlefield of fur and teeth until the last body drops.

Silence lasts for one breath.

“Let’s get out of here before the rest of them catch up!” Reed’s voice sounds inside my head. “Get on!”

He crouches in front of me in his wolf form. I climb onto his back and grip his fur. Evren, Luca, and Jace flank us as we bolt down the corridor and burst outside.

As soon as we are outside, I confirm that we are really in the middle of a huge expanse of flower fields. And the place we escaped from happened to be a lighthouse. Evren and Jace sneeze as we tear through rows of blooms. I almost laugh despite everything. Wolves hate strong scents.

But we don’t even run too far before growls swell behind us. I twist around and see at least two dozen rogues flooding out of the lighthouse.

“They’re closing in on us!” I shout. Damn it!

Reed pushes harder. I feel the strain in his muscles as he runs. The others keep pace on either side.

Just when I think that we can outrun them, headlights flare to life ahead. A car barrels toward us with three figures sitting inside. A window rolls down and a man holding a gun appears.

“Shit—!”

Five shots crack through the night. Reed swerves and dodges the first three. But the fourth slams into him and the fifth.

“REED!”

A whine tears from his throat as his legs buckle. The ground rushes up at me when he falls. I hit the dirt and rolled as pained sounds escaped from Reed’s mouth.

“No, no, no, Reed!”

Grunting, I crawl to his side, ignoring the gashes I probably have, as I reach for Reed. I remove the darts buried in his flesh and he whines in pain.
Enraged, Luca plants himself in front of Reed and me, his massive wolf form lowering into a protective stance before he lunges at the car. The gun inside flashes and a shot tears into his side, but he keeps moving, jaws snapping toward the open window. A second shot follows almost instantly, slamming into him with enough force to throw him off balance. His body twists mid-stride and he crashes hard onto the dirt a few feet away, skidding across the ground before going still.

“Luca!” I scream, scrambling toward him too.

The passenger in the car shifts his aim toward Evren, but Evren is already in motion. He launches himself onto the hood and vaults to the roof. His claws scrape metal as he sinks his teeth into the arm holding the gun.

“AHH!” The gunman screeches as Evren bites his arm like he’s a chew toy. The weapon falls from the man’s grip as Evren wrenches him sideways.

Another figure inside the car reaches for a second gun and raises it toward Evren’s head, but before he can steady his aim, headlights blaze behind them and a second vehicle slams into the rear of their car. The impact jolts everything forward, throwing the gunman off balance and giving Evren the opening he needs to lunge and take him down. At the same time, Jace barrels through the open door and drags the driver out by the collar, tossing him aside with a violent snap of his jaws.

The engine of the car that rammed them cuts off, and the driver’s door swings open. Andrew steps out, staring at the wreckage and at us like he’s walked into a nightmare.

“Shit. I thought I was seeing things but it’s really you, Tabi!” he says, disbelief written all over his face.

“Oh my God, Andrew! What are you doing here?” I ask, still gripping the gun.

“I’m not sure this is the time to catch up. But this is close to the property that my dad had recently bought,” he says, pointing toward a row of windmills a few hundred meters away.

Right!

His gaze shifts from me to the gun in my hands and then to the four massive wolves surrounding the crushed car.

“So… I’m not sure where to start. But uh, What exactly is happening here?”

Low growls roll across the field behind us, growing louder with every second. Andrew’s eyes almost bulge out of their sockets at the sight of the army of werewolves running full speed at us.

“Oh fu—What the fuck are those things?” Andrew blurts when he spots the incoming rogues. “I didn’t know there were this many wolves on Kaelara, especially ones that big. Why are they chasing you?”

“I don’t have time to explain—Just please tell me we can use your car.”

“All of you?” he asks, eyes widening as he looks at the wolves. “Including these four big dogs. I mean wolves?”

Fur ripples and recedes as Jace and Evren shift back into their human forms, naked and bleeding but unmistakably human.

Andrew stares like his brain has short-circuited.

“H-How….!” he stammers, gawking at the two brothers who are werewolves just a few moments ago.

“I promise I’ll explain everything later,” I say quickly. “But please, help us get out of here now.”

He swallows hard, but forces himself to move. He nods and helps Evren and Jace into the car while I rush back to Reed and Luca. Together we haul their heavy bodies into the backseat just as the first of the rogue pack bursts into the edge of the field.

Andrew jumps behind the wheel and slams the door shut before turning the key. The engine roars to life and the car lurches forward as the wolves close in behind us.

We speed down the dirt road, the tires spitting gravel. In the backseat, Reed and Luca shift back into their human forms mid-drive, their bodies reshaping against the upholstery. Unlike Evren and Jace, they don’t wake up. The darts they were shot with earlier still hold them under.

“Holy shit,” Andrew breathes, glancing at them through the mirror. “Tabi, your stepbrothers are…”

“Werewolves, yes.”

“Werewolves? They’re real?” he demands.

“Well, you’re the one with eyes,” Jace mutters from the back. “You tell me.”

Andrew shakes his head, gripping the steering wheel like it’s the only solid thing left in the world.

In the rearview mirror, the rogue pack keeps pace, their shadows stretching across the road behind us.

“Why are they chasing you?”

“Because they want to kill my stepbrothers.”

“What?! Why?”

“Long story,” Evren replies, leaning back against the seat. He covers his mouth with his hand as he coughs blood.

“Great,” Andrew mutters, pressing harder on the gas. “I’ll just drive and hope we don’t run out of gas before they catch up. Seriously, how the hell are we supposed to get away from them?”